Quote · The Rest Is Politics: US
198. Trump's War On Europe: No Way Back?
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Will Gas Prices Let Republicans Sell Iran as a Win?
At 38:40 · chapter starts 37:13
Kay poses the sharpest political question of the episode: does any of the strategic analysis matter if gas prices come down? Democrats are doing the forensic work — comparing enrichment percentages to the Obama deal, cataloging concessions — but Scarborough argues the White House has the better of the short-term politics [1] — Katty Kay "Democrats are focused on whether 0.6% enrichment compares to the Obama deal. Voters will focus on gas prices coming down. The White House k…" 37:13 . Falling gas prices, stabilising markets, and Iran off the front pages: that is the Republican play. The Epstein files briefly resurface as a complication — Trump's Iran adventure was launched the Friday before those stories broke, and Scarborough wonders whether Trump might find himself trading one crisis for another. But in the short run, Republicans benefit. The long-run verdict, he insists, is devastating: Bob Kagan has written that if this MOU is the endpoint, it will rank as one of the greatest military defeats in US history, comparable to Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The closing line is Kay's: in the long, long run, a world where every country decides it needs a nuclear weapon may be the real legacy of what just happened in Iran.
Democrats are focused on whether 0.6% enrichment compares to the Obama deal. Voters will focus on gas prices coming down. The White House knows it can sell the Iran MOU as a win in the short run — and they're probably right.
Commentator Bob Kagan wrote that if the Iran deal ends at the MOU stage, it will go down as one of the greatest military defeats in US history.
